Manufacturing and production facilities include rotating equipment therein such as motors and pumps. These motors and pumps include various components which may undergo wear or have equipment defects which cause failure of the components. Such components include bearings on the motor and pump, and mechanical seals which prevent leakage of the process fluid being pumped into the pump components along the shaft. Any failures of the components of the rotating equipment may cause significant expense both in the repair of the rotating equipment as well as down time during the manufacturing or processing of product.
In an effort to identify equipment damage prior to complete failure thereof, it is known to collect vibration data on the bearings of rotating equipment. Vibration data typically is collected on two locations on each of the motor and pump which locations correspond to the bearings therein. More particularly as to each bearing location, vibration data is collected for both the horizontal and vertical directions. It is important that the horizontal and vertical directions be at right angles and aligned with each other. In addition, to the horizontal and vertical data, axial data is collected for each of the motor and pump.
Vibration data can indicate equipment problems such as unbalance, bearing defects, gear defects, blade/impeller faults, structural resonance problems, rubbing, loss of lubrication, oil whirl, cavitation/recirculation problems, equipment distress and seal distress. As the equipment components begin to fail, vibration levels typically increase and if left undetected, catastrophic damage may occur to the equipment and result in extensive repair costs as well as lost production.
When increases in vibration levels lead to an indication of failure, repairs are required to the equipment although these repairs are less than when catastrophic failure is reached. Once the vibration levels increase, a window of time is provided between the start of excessive vibration and a catastrophic failure point such that it is critical to identify and correct and problems during this failure window. However, an undesirable feature associated with vibration analysis is that vibration is indicative of the presence of some damage such that this damage still must be repaired.
Furthermore, vibration analysis requires that the horizontal, vertical and axial vibration measurements be at precise orientations. This may be difficult, however, for measurements taken with handheld vibration detectors, particularly where the equipment material is non-metallic. For example, if a horizontal measurement is not taken perpendicular to the vertical measurement, results would be affected. Accordingly, use of manual vibration detectors is more likely to introduce human error into the process, although the use of handheld measurement devices remains desirable since this is more cost effective than using a fully automated sensing system comprising permanent sensors and monitoring equipment.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system of monitoring rotating equipment which proactively or predictively identifies component problems prior to the occurrence of damage in the rotating equipment.
The invention relates to a monitoring system which collects temperature data of critical areas on the rotating equipment. This temperature monitoring system is capable of detecting problems before damage occurs and may be used in combination with vibration analysis and other sampling techniques to provide a comprehensive monitoring system for the rotating equipment.
Generally, the temperature monitoring system of the invention monitors bearing temperatures in the motor and pump, the process fluid temperature and various areas of the mechanical seal environment including seal flush, seal cooler and seal reservoir. Typically, unusual fluid flow in the equipment components generates undesirable and out of the ordinary heat which causes temperature increases that may be detected before actual failure and damage of the components. This may significantly reduce repair costs and down time of the rotating equipment.
The condition monitoring system furthermore provides more reliable results with bearings since only a single temperature reading is made on each bearing wherein the temperature reading does not require that the temperature detector be oriented at a precise angle. Still further, the temperature monitoring system allows other equipment environments to be monitored, particularly, the seal environment wherein conditions leading to failure cause little if any vibration.
Other objects and purposes of the invention, and variations thereof, will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
Certain terminology will be used in the following description for convenience and reference only, and will not be limiting. For example, the words “upwardly”, “downwardly”, “rightwardly” and “leftwardly” will refer to directions in the drawings to which reference is made. The words “inwardly” and “outwardly” will refer to directions toward and away from, respectively, the geometric center of the arrangement and designated parts thereof. Said terminology will include the words specifically mentioned, derivatives thereof, and words of similar import.